Report: More Kids Covered in Ohio, But Work Remains

Public News Service

November 07, 2014

By Mary Kuhlman,

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio is a bit ahead of the national curve in ensuring that its children have health-care coverage. A new report from the Georgetown Center for Children and Families found the number of children without health insurance in Ohio dropped slightly from 2011 to 2013 – just one-half percent.

While it isn’t a significant change, said Sandy Oxley, president and chief executive of Voices for Ohio’s Children, the state is making improvements.

“The progress that’s been made over the last year – in particular, with presumptive eligibility in the Medicaid system and ensuring that children remain insured once we get them into coverage – has been a critical piece,” she said.

However, the report said nationally, more than 5 million children still are without health insurance, and 2013 was the first year in recent history that the uninsured rate for children did not significantly decline from the previous year.

Joan Alker, who heads the Georgetown Center for Children and Families, said kids in families living just above the poverty line are the most likely to be uninsured.

“Those children are really targeted by the Children’s Health Insurance Program,” she said, “and Congress has an important decision next year as to whether or not to extend funding for the CHIP program.”

In Ohio, Oxley said, CHIP helps keep more children insured and also provides a comprehensive health-benefit package for them.

“Our CHIP kids in Ohio have an early periodic diagnosis screening and treatment benefit package that addresses the specific health-care needs of children,” she said, “and that is one of the benefits that would be maintained with a CHIP reauthorization at the federal level.”

The report suggested that further implementation of the Affordable Care Act will help more people gain health insurance in the coming years, but Oxley said state and federal leaders need to make covering children a priority.

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